We had to leave the JL meeting at the end of the first period to drive out to the airport and pick up a buddy who is home for the holidays. After we had loaded all his crap into the truck and were heading back on the QEII he surveyed the snowy scene outside.

“Thanks for coming to get me Wanye. I haven’t seen roads like this in a while. I must be home.”

“No problem, you dink,” we replied. “In the future, could you arrange it so you don’t come in during an Oilers game?”

He then told us he really felt at home and we began discussing the team. He has been out of the country for an extended period but it was amazing how quickly you can bring someone up to speed on the last quarter of the season.

Him: “How are the Oil doing anyway?”

Me: “Fairly crappily actually. They are hovering around .500”

Him: “I thought I read on the net that they were supposed to be good this season. Wasn’t everyone pumped up about all the rookies and the free agents going into this year?”

Me: “Yeah, they aren’t lighting the world on fire by any means but they aren’t terrible either. Visnovsky is working out well, Souray is on fire. That’s about it so far though.”

Our buddy is a die-hard Oilers fan and played the game for years -- so when we bring up his next point it isn’t coming from some drooling bonehead who just got back from dancing at raves in Europe for a year -- though that’s exactly what he did.

“Know what the Oilers need to do to turn the corner?” he asked aloud.

Firstly, we were impressed that he could land, get in the car, be brought up to speed on the team by Leduc and have suggestions ready by the Whitemud. That’s an Oilers fan coming home for you. Without any prompting on our part he went on.

“The Oilers need to get a premiere goalie. All throughout the ‘90s no matter how crappy the Oilers were they had a good goalie. Ranford, CuJo even Salo was a big deal for a few seasons. They brought in Roloson to solve the revolving door scenario with Markkanen and Conklin and clearly he brought the heat.

“But now it seems they’re right back where they started with three mediocre goalies. Rather than looking for more skaters in trades, they should go after someone unreal in net. Hit a goalie up with a $6 million contract or something.”

By no means did Garon play badly last night. But the fact of the matter is that the Oil simply aren’t getting the goaltending they need on a night-in night-out basis. Let’s take a gander at the three headed monster shall we?

Is anyone lighting the world on fire here? No. Is it their fault, necessarily? No. Is goaltending one of the main reasons the Oilers sit where they do in the standings on a snowy Friday morning? No. Is it helpful to have a goalie that is in your top three players on the team? Yes. Very helpful, in fact. Might an addition of top-tier goalie -- something rarely discussed -- help vault the Oil up in the standings and cement the team in the upper tier of the West for the next few seasons? Sure.

Goalies are a strange bunch, and can often emerge out of nowhere. Take this Anderson from last night. He was something else wasn’t he? As Terry Jones explains:

The $575,000-a-year goalie, whose paycheque is 10% of Tomas Vokoun's, went into the game with the best save percentage in the league at .941 and a 2.09 goals against average and improved on both numbers to go 5-1-2 in his last eight games and 16-4-3 since Jan. 3 last year.

Anderson left the building with one of the most fascinating stats you'll ever find for a goaltender as he stretched his career record to 10-1-4 in games in which he faced 40 or more shots.

Maybe if the Oil are considering bringing in a premiere player in a four for one deal, a ‘tender should be airlifted in to this squad. We rarely hear it brought up but sometimes it takes a citizen of the Nation who hasn’t been listening to the Schremp analysis for the past seven months to bring in some perspective.

Yep. Foe sure. Take the Canucks since lou got hurt....they aren't that good. With him in the line up, all of a sudden, they look like a good team. I'd love to have a goalie that didn't make me cringe everytime there was a shot on net. I'd also be happy to have a couple of forwards who would maybe crash the net, ya know, once in a while. You know, like maybe every couple of games.....How many tough saves did Anderson have to make last night?

Goalies are such a weird bunch to sort out. The ones that are good don't become available too often...unless you find a GM that's lost his marbles (read: Luongo). One's that were once good are often a crap shoot. (see Theodore). It's just a weird thing...it's like winning the lottery with goalies.

I think the only way the Oilers get their hands on a good goalie is to develop one from a fetus, engineered to their exact specifications. One that will undergo intensive training exercises that develop acute reflexes, hand eye coordination, flexibility, agility and all around superhuman strength...not to mention the rock solid, unflappable mind of a shaolin monk.

But honestly...I don't think the problem is necessarily goaltending. I think most of our losses this season can be attributed to lack of intensity/give'a'shit/effort by the guys playing in front of (insert goalie name here).

I may be missing one or two, but my point is that there aren't many Goaltenders that are guaranteed better than Garon and Roli, and those keepers are not up for grabs.

If Garon plays like last year or Deslauriers keeps playing like he has been or roli keeps playing like he did in 2006 then I believe that Goaltending is not the problem. Lots of if's there, but none are really improbable.

Our problem appears to be the PK, faceoffs, and scoring goals regularly. I think we address those and our goaltending will be fine.

Oh and GET RID of the three headed monster. I don't care which head we lop off but get it done.

This team has gone through fits and starts of goal tending for the last 15 years, which I suppose is typical of any team that doesn't have a legit top 5 locked up long term. They go from having a solid goalie, maybe even top 10, to having a bunch of nobodies, to a solid goalie and back again. The Oilers have not had a lights-out tender since Cujo, and even then, if memory serves he only had one season where he had more wins than losses with the Oil. As previously noted, it is pretty much like winning the lotto when it comes to finding a stud goalie that can lead your team for 10 years. With that in mind, we should just assume that if anything were to come up, the Oil would jump at it, but in the mean time just treat it like the weather - it is out of your control. This isn't to say they should have 3 goalies, but I imagine even if the Oilers were to offer their whole first line they would have a tough time landing a guy like Lundqivst, Nabakov or Brodeur.

I say bring back bring back Ryan Smyth and get another gritty forward to mix things up. The best the Oilers have been in the last 15 years is when Smyth was in his prime running goalies and working the corners, we need this element on the team to succeed (particularly if the coach is never going to be fired). I don't care how you acquire these parts, particularly considering the high levels of redundancy at every position on this team, it just needs to be done. More size, more attitude, more heart.

The last thing this team needs is Ryan Smyth and his ridiculous contract. Told old and for too much. His production will surely decline over the remainder and he's got a cap hit that is too big to take on simply for nostalgic purposes.

Anyways, RE:goaltending. The way I see it, there are two options for a contending team:

1) Have a premiere goaltender.
2) Have 2 1A-type goaltenders, either of whom could catch fire.

Option 2 is the Detroit method, and it's a good way to get good goaltending without spending truckloads of money. Of course, sometimes both goalies collapse (Emery/Gerber, for example), but that's less common because there are two legit options.

Option 1 is the Anaheim/San Jose/New Jersey method, and it works great. There are really only two issues with option 1:

Wayne i am sorry but i kind of disagree a little bit.
Here is why. In the history of the NHL i dont recall anyone winning a game with 0 goals!!! i think goaltending (other than taking up a roster spot) is the least of our worries!For me last nights game made it abundantly clear we need goal scoring not goal tending!With two minutes left in the game down by a goal and we are counting on Gange?24 games 6 points Gange? We need a goal scorer plain and simple! 41 shots & half of Anderson could have had a blind fold on to stop them!We dont need an abundance of shots we need someone who can get quality shots.

@ Joey; you mention Ryan Symth in his prime. He's past his prime and he still got over-paid. He's done little for Colorado and I'd rather have a young and getting better Robert Nillson then an old and getting less effective Ryan Smyth...regardless of his contract. Lowe got it right when he got youth for Smyth after HE refused to take the Oilers contract offer.

. . . honestly…I don’t think the problem is necessarily goaltending. I think most of our losses this season can be attributed to lack of intensity/give’a’shit/effort by the guys playing in front of (insert goalie name here).

Cam wrote:

. . . there aren’t many Goaltenders that are guaranteed better than Garon and Roli . . .I believe that Goaltending is not the problem . . . GET RID of the three headed monster. I don’t care which head we lop off but get it done.

J&J wrote:

I think goaltending (other than taking up a roster spot) is the least of our worries!

These guys are on to something. Our goalies are capable. The problem isn't that they aren't good, it's that none of them are allowed to get in a rhythm and actually play a string of games. Simply dumping one of our existing goalies would fix a lot of what is ailing. The two goalies we keep play more confidently and the third roster spot and the extra salary is used to bring in someone who can put the puck in the other net.

And Nation, I think K-Lowe and Tambo know this too. They're just looking to get the best return when they sell. If they trade Garon away and get Rob Hennigar from the Islanders in return (Who? Exactly.) they know they'll have some 'splainin' to do.

Get out there and score more than two goals. The rest will take care of itself. Sheesh.

I would really like to see what JDD has to offer before we "MOVE" a goalie. Since Edmonton Drafted him he has been screwed around Bad! First in his AHL career we try and develop him in another teams system were they are trying to develop thier own goaltending prospects and he gets minimal time between the pipes and then we sign him to a one way deal and let him sit in the press box and watch!We could have an "Anderson" on our hands and we would never even know it! Still not the big Problem with this team though!NEED SCORING!ASAP!

On one hand it seems like goaltending is not a problem...on the other hand penalty killing is a BIG problem. Isn't your tender supposed to be your best PKer?

When MacIntyre gets back I would like him to get the green light to run some guys, to initiate fights against unwilling victims etc. This could help to spark a wussy front end...BUT we have to be better on the PK or this can't work. Is there any Legwand/Lehtinen type center available for some smaller younger talent? Is there any intrest at all out there for a Schremp, or Brule, or Pouliot? I know this thread is about goaltenders so let's throw one of them into the pot also...

@ Jonathan Willis:
Brule is a physical player and I appreciate that but it takes quality to get quality. I would consider trading anyone on this team aside from Hemskey if it brought more balance to the lineup.

@ Joey; you mention Ryan Symth in his prime. He’s past his prime and he still got over-paid. He’s done little for Colorado and I’d rather have a young and getting better Robert Nillson then an old and getting less effective Ryan Smyth…regardless of his contract. Lowe got it right when he got youth for Smyth after HE refused to take the Oilers contract offer.

Although I do mostly agree, last night it was painfully obvious we need a guy willing to stand in front of the net, get wacked and hacked and score off his ass, create a scramble....something, anything. Again last night, way too easy to play against. We got skill guys, but we don't have sic skill guys (like Ovie). I'd definitley like to see a 2 or 3 for 1 trade to get a big man with finish.

Sure, but there are about a bunch of players on the team (Cogliano, Nilsson, Gagner, Schremp) or who are not far off (Potulny, Lerg, Omark, Trukhno, Eberle) that don't have much of a physical/defensive element to them. If the Oilers are looking for short- and long-term balance, why move a player type that the organization is much shorter in?

Besides, I doubt the Oilers would have acquired him if they felt he wasn't worth hanging on to.

@ Jonathan Willis:
Well I doubt Tambo will move Gagner (the future) or Cogliano (the only producing minipop). I like Brule. Schremp, Pouliot, Reddox, or Nilsson can go...But who wants them? What could you get back? Probably not a lot. I feel stupid because I bought into the hype going into this season... I believed this was a go for it year not another development year. We don't have much help down in Sprinfield either.